Rather than wait for the maritime association to act, port officials in Los Angeles and Long Beach have forged ahead with their own clean-air plan -- a draft of which was announced at a June 28 news conference.
The $2-billion, five-year proposal seeks to reduce sooty diesel emissions from cargo ships, trains and trucks by more than 50%. Harbor officials hope to achieve those goals by specifying conditions in terminal leases, revising port rules and adjusting harbor fees as an incentive.
The plan, expected to be approved by both harbor commissions in September, calls for international cargo ships to use low-sulfur fuel within 20 nautical miles of local ports and to cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 45%.
Meanwhile, the maritime agency will continue formulating new emissions standards to significantly reduce sulfur oxides, particulates and nitrogen oxides from oceangoing vessels.
Tougher measures to limit air pollution from incineration of shipboard waste and from tanker operations -- such as the loading and unloading of crude oil, petroleum products and hazardous chemicals -- also are on the agenda.
For the first time, Vagslid said, the IMO will consider regulating particulates and whether to require ships built before 2000 to retrofit their main engines with air pollution controls, such as scrubbers and catalytic converters. The current standards apply only to new ships and those being refitted with new engines.
Vagslid said the effort is the result of pressure from European nations interested in improving the maritime agency's current fuel and emissions standards, which have been widely viewed as ineffective.
Those regulations were formulated in 1997, but it took eight years for member nations to ratify them. They finally went into effect in May 2005.
The 1997 regulations set the sulfur content for ship fuel at 4.5% -- noticeably above the 3% sulfur content of fuel generally available worldwide.
The current International Maritime Organization standards also call for a 25% to 30% reduction in nitrogen oxides in new engines placed in ships starting in 2000. But environmentalists and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency question whether those regulations will be effective.
"No one takes these regulations seriously," said Teri Shore, a campaign director for Bluewater Network, an environmental group involved with marine issues. "Ship air pollution is growing, and growing faster than other pollution sources."
